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Ethereal vs Dainty - What's the difference?

ethereal | dainty |

As adjectives the difference between ethereal and dainty

is that ethereal is pertaining to the hypothetical upper, purer air, or to the higher regions beyond the earth or beyond the atmosphere; celestial; otherworldly; as, ethereal space; ethereal regions while dainty is (obsolete) excellent; valuable, fine.

As a noun dainty is

(obsolete) esteem, honour.

ethereal

English

Alternative forms

* aethereal * aetherial * * (obsolete) * * (obsolete)

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Pertaining to the hypothetical upper, purer air, or to the higher regions beyond the earth or beyond the atmosphere; celestial; otherworldly; as, ethereal space; ethereal regions.
  • * 1667 : , Paradise Lost , book VII
    • Go, heavenly guest, ethereal messenger.
  • * 1862 : , Walking .
    • I trust that we shall be more imaginative, that our thoughts will be clearer, fresher, and more ethereal , as our sky,...
  • Consisting of ether; hence, exceedingly light or airy; tenuous; spiritlike; characterized by extreme delicacy, as form, manner, thought, etc.
  • * 1733 : , An Essay on Man
    • Vast chain of being, which from God began, Natures ethereal , human, angel, man.
  • Delicate, light and airy.

    • Derived terms

    * ethereality * ethereally * etherealness * etherealization * etherealisation * etherealizing

    References

    * American English forms

    dainty

    English

    Noun

    (dainties)
  • (obsolete) Esteem, honour.
  • A delicacy.
  • * 1719 , (Daniel Defoe), (Robinson Crusoe)
    • my case was deplorable enough, yet I had great cause for thankfulness that I was not driven to any extremities for food, but had rather plenty, even to dainties .
  • * (William Cowper)
    • [A table] furnished plenteously with bread, / And dainties , remnants of the last regale.
  • (Canada, Prairies and northwestern Ontario) A fancy cookie, pastry, or square served at a social event (usually plural).
  • (obsolete)
    • (Ben Jonson)

    Adjective

    (er)
  • (obsolete) Excellent; valuable, fine.
  • *, II.13:
    • Heliogabalus the most dissolute man of the world, amidst his most riotous sensualities, intended, whensoever occasion should force him to it, to have a daintie death.
  • Elegant; delicately small and pretty.
  • * Milton
    • Those dainty limbs which nature lent / For gentle usage and soft delicacy.
  • *
    • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=1 , passage=However, with the dainty volume my quondam friend sprang into fame. At the same time he cast off the chrysalis of a commonplace existence.}}
  • Fastidious and fussy, especially when eating.
  • * Francis Bacon
    • They were a fine and dainty people.
  • * Shakespeare
    • And let us not be dainty of leave taking, / But shift away.

    Synonyms

    * neat * petite

    References

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